The victims of the fraud said that the company’s owner portrayed himself as the “Mark Zuckerberg” (Facebook owner) of the country. He had launched a social networking site to lure the customers. The victims said that the company even claimed to be starting its own private bank to deal with the customers as the size of its transactions was growing rapidly.
According to the SSP, the company has so far done the business of over Rs. 3,700 crore. “We have written a letter to the authorities concerned to stop transaction of Rs. 524 crore of the company. We wanted to continue our probe for another week, but the information of our investigation reached the company top brass and they had started to transfer money to other accounts,” Mr. Pathak said.
The company made only Rs. 1 lakh in 2011, but between 2012 and 2016, its business grew from Rs. 1.5 lakh to Rs. 3700 crore. Preliminary investigation revealed that Ablaze Info duped around 6.5 lakh people with its ‘earn Rs. 5 per click’ scheme.
“The accused started a web portal — socialtrade.biz — where an investor had to pay an amount, from Rs. 5,750 to Rs. 57,500, in the company’s account to become a member. Each member was promised Rs. 5 per click on links provided by the company,” said a senior police officer.
